Some Black Teens Pulled Between Health & Hair

As a childhood obesity expert and black woman, Susan Woolford, M.D., MPH, knows that some girls and women in the black community feel as if they have to choose between their health and their hair.

Gym class, school sports and other exercise routines bring important health benefits. But sweating also means potentially bad hair days and ruining time-consuming and costly hairstyles.

So Woolford, a pediatrician at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit, along with her sister Carole Woolford-Hunt, Ph.D., of Andrews University in Michigan, and David Williams, Ph.D., of Harvard University, studied this cultural phenomenon. The researchers asked: Are lower levels of physical activity among African-American teens related to hair care?

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